"He's the best of his generation," Albert Brooks told reporters of Gosling at the L.A. Film Festival premiere of their new flick Drive, in which Gosling plays a tight-lipped bad boy getaway-car driver.

"I get Taxi Driver, what De Niro was like back then," Brooks says of watching Gosling work. "I haven't worked with De Niro since, but, you know, it was a character that was like all to himself and he never spoke. And he never spoke during the film. He just went off and sat down, and Ryan was pretty much like that."

So what does Gosling think of Brooks comparison?

"I asked him to do that," joked the Notebook actor. "I mean that's an honor. It's crazy talk, but it's an honor."